Telephone communications have become a commonplace technique for exchanging information. In the business environment, as well as even on a personal basis, long distance telephone communications are carried out to enhance the flow of information. While many long distance telephone communications can be carried out by direct dial techniques, there are still a host of instances and situations in which operator assistance is required. Indeed, in recent years, the provision of independent operator services has experienced significant growth. This growth is due in a large part to the competition between long distance carriers themselves, as well as "smart" telephone sets. Smart telephone sets are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,924,497 and 4,947,422, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Smart telephone sets comprise a new generation of public and private telephones that are processor controlled, and programmed to provide a variety of different functions. Such telephones can be privately owned, but publicly used. In addition, these telephones are programmed to automatically access a particular operator service organization when the need arises. For example, such services are required with many types of telephones when a long distance call is a collect type or a credit card type of call. In a typical credit card type of call, a user of such a telephone may simply dial "0" and the ten-digit long distance telephone number. The telephone is programmed to automatically route the call to a specified operator service organization, whereupon either computerized equipment or personnel intervene to assure that the proper billing arrangements exist in order to complete the call. In practice, there exists various operator services that serve the continental United States as to the completion of calls on an international basis. It can be appreciated that such a service organization can receive thousands of calls every hour. Indeed, a typical operator can provide long distance assistance and complete a call every 15-30 seconds.
Because of the numerous types of telephone calls and situations which an operator may encounter, a significant amount of information must be available to each operator. For example, not only must an operator be capable of completing routine credit card calls, collect calls, person-to-person calls, but must also accommodate the calling parties with information relating to the cost of the call, the local time of the destination, customer service information, repair information, installation information, overseas communications, bilingual communications, area code information for every domestic geographical area as well as country code information for every country in the world, and other information.
In the past, long distance operators in general have had such information available, albeit in a very unorganized manner and often very difficult or time consuming to retrieve. For example, many operator organizations have three-by-five card files of relevant information used in assisting calling parties, such as area codes, which the operator manually thumbs through to find the appropriate area code. Not only is this cumbersome, but also area codes frequently change and new codes are generated, whereupon each card file must be manually updated. In addition to the use of card files, publications, and catalogs, other operator service organizations have available computerized terminals driven by a host that presents certain information concerning the calling party. The operator is equipped with a headset to communicate to such calling party information, such as billing information in the nature of credit card numbers or a destination telephone number for collect call purposes. In practice, the information presented on such terminals is in the nature of many pneumonics which must be memorized by the operator in order to effectively communicate with the host communication system and understand the data base information. For example, the pneumonic "CLG1" presented on the screen to the operator may mean that the calling party has hung up, while the pneumonic "CLD1" displayed on the CRT may indicate that the called party was disconnected. Not only was the operator required to decipher much of the cryptic information presented on the CRT, the operator also had to input by way of a keyboard substantial information for communicating back to the host communication system. Essentially, such a system was not "user friendly" and therefore was difficult to become accustomed to by new operators.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that a need exists for an improved technique for both presenting information to the operator in an uncomplicated and efficient manner, as well as for return information from the operator back to the host communication system. Another need exists for an improved technique for presenting information to the operator which is user friendly to allow easy interaction with the host computer. Yet another need exists for an improved programming technique for use with operator positions where various selectable menus are available, and the entries within the menu are preselected by the software based on being the most likely to be selected, and there is reduced scanning of the menu entries by the operator before selection.